“This Is Not Ebola, It Is All Pathogens Of Huge Public Health Threats” — Pate Says FEC Approves ₦45.08bn Biosecurity System For Five Airports

The Federal Executive Council has approved a ₦45,080,800,000 national biosecurity and response system at five international airports to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to detect and contain infectious diseases entering the country.

The project, approved under a 20-year public-private partnership arrangement with Biohealth Consortium, will cover international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing journalists at the State House, Abuja, after the Council meeting presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Pate said the approval came amid heightened concern over cross-border disease threats and efforts to prevent community transmission following the detection of an Ebola case in Nigeria.

According to him, the patient recovered after receiving treatment in the country and had returned to her home country, while identified contacts remained under quarantine and monitoring.

The Minister said the airport biosecurity project, which had been in preparation for two years, would strengthen early warning, detection and response through technology and improved coordination among relevant agencies.

He said more than 18 million passengers pass through Nigeria’s airports annually, underscoring the importance of stronger surveillance at entry points.

The system will include aircraft wastewater surveillance, air and surface sampling units, and cargo and baggage biosurveillance technologies to detect pathogens that might otherwise enter unnoticed.

“This is not Ebola. It is all pathogens of huge public health threats,” Pate said.

The project will also establish a national surveillance operations centre to serve as a central command-and-control facility for real-time surveillance, data integration, incident monitoring and response coordination.

Laboratory facilities for field diagnostics will be deployed at entry points, alongside infrastructure to facilitate information sharing and cooperation among agencies.

Pate listed participating agencies to include the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Port Health Services, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.

He said the five airports were selected for the initial deployment based on passenger traffic, exposure to biosecurity risks and geographical spread.

Explaining the concession structure, the Minister said the private partner would design, finance, build, deploy, operate and maintain the system throughout the concession period.

The Federal Government, he added, would provide policy, institutional and regulatory support, as well as oversight to ensure that national objectives were met.

At the end of the concession, the system and its assets will revert to federal ownership under the terms of the agreement, as reviewed and endorsed by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.

Pate said the initiative would improve decision-making, inter-agency coordination and compliance with international health regulations, while expanding the technologies available to agencies operating at entry points.

He stressed that preventing outbreaks was essential to both public health and economic stability.

“Improving biosecurity at the points of entry, particularly at the airports, is so critical to our health security, not only for public health but also for economic security, because when pathogens come and disrupt, economic activities also suffer,” he said.

Responding to a question on financial support for people quarantined following contact with the Ebola patient, Pate said the measure was intended to encourage compliance and prevent community transmission.

He explained that contacts who depended on daily earnings could face pressure to leave quarantine to provide for their families, potentially exposing others if they developed the infection.

“They have a livelihood, and you ask them to stay in quarantine. They have a family,” he said.

The Minister described the support as a targeted containment measure, stressing that it would not automatically apply if the virus spread widely in the community.

“Our goal is to contain it. We don’t want to be in a situation whereby we have community transmission,” he said.

Pate said officials identified contacts and placed them under quarantine within hours of confirming the case. Some initially stayed in home isolation before being transferred to designated facilities for closer monitoring.

He said the contacts would remain under observation for 21 days to establish whether they had contracted the virus.

“We are not taking any chances. We may succeed, or one or two unfortunate cases may be affected. But if that is the case, we’ll rapidly get on top of it,” he said.

According to the Minister, there was no positive Ebola case within Nigeria’s territory at the time of the briefing, following the recovery and departure of the patient.

He said, however, that continued vigilance was necessary to prevent new cases from entering the country and to ensure a swift response to any infection detected among those under observation.

“We are a large country, and we don’t want to have Ebola circulating or other pathogens that may pose a threat to our population,” Pate said.

Post Title: “This Is Not Ebola, It Is All Pathogens Of Huge Public Health Threats” — Pate Says FEC Approves ₦45.08bn Biosecurity System For Five Airports By Papers Nigeria.